Recent Conferences
Rule of Law Interagency Conference: Rule of Law Promotion in Fragile, Transitional and Post-Conflict States
The interagency rule of law (ROL) training course draws upon expertise of faculty at the University of South Carolina, leading authorities from other institutions, and officials working for the US Government in anumber of capacities within transitional and post-conflict settings. The training highlights interagency, interdisciplinary and multilateral approaches to ROL, fosters a broad-based and deep understanding of ROL, builds competencies for working on ROL issues within fragile and post-conflict societies, addresses the relationship among security, ROL and a wide range of factors, and adopts a forward looking proactive posture in terms of both immediate and long-term challenges and interventions. In short, the training course is not designed to prepare participants for a particular deployment, but rather furnish key concepts, methods, skills and approaches for participants to use in their interagency ROL work.
War By Another Means Conference: Perspectives on Insurgencies
The USC Institute for Southern Studies, in collaboration with the Walker Institute, presented “War By Another Means: Perspectives on Insurgencies” at the Solomon Center in Fort Jackson. The Keynote Address included a speaker and a round table discussion examining the Afghanistan and Iraq counterinsurgencies. The Symposium featured respected scholars who will explore the characteristics of insurgencies and why they are the preferred form of warfare in the 21st Century.
Taiwan Studies Conference
Since the late 1990s, the Center for Asian Studies (CAS) at USC has annually held the conference on Taiwan issues in Columbia, SC, with the generous support of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office (TECO). Throughout its history, a wide range of topics regarding Taiwan has been covered, from democracy, political development, and economy, to social and cultural phenonema. The CAS has invited many well-known scholars and experts to contribute their insight during these conferences.
National Science Foundation Conference
The NSF Conference is a three day cross-disciplinary conference that will bring together conflict scholars to address the single empirical domain of the contemporary Middle East conflict system. Different technical approaches will be represented such as network analysis, geographic information systems, and identity-based analyses to social conflict. Focusing on a single empirical domain (the Middle East conflict) will more readily allow for a head-to-head comparison of the various approaches to conflict analysis. It will permit those interested in how the Middle East conflicts could be managed or resolved to see points of leverage and productive strategies.
Sierra Leone Conference
After more than a decade of civil war, Sierra Leone has spent the past eight years slowly rebuilding a state and society shattered by war. Nearly half of its population was displaced during the civil war that ended in 2002. Most of those who were displaced remain unsettled and the country has struggled to develop the basic mechanisms for an ordered state and civil society.
Drawing leaders from a variety of academic disciplines all of whom have on-the-ground experience in Sierra Leone, the conference will present a comprehensive look at the issues facing post-war Sierra Leone and some of the opportunities that exist to address those issues.